Coraline 2: Paint It, Black
by Do The Evolution
Summary: ."Even the proudest spirit can be broken... With Love!" Was once Other Mother's philosophy with her pray. Well, she tried love once and got her eyes ripped out. Now Other Mother returns 5 years later, and she's driven only by HATE.
1. Chapter 1

**Coraline 2: Paint It, Black**

"_**Hate. Let me tell you how much I've come to hate you since I began to live. There are 387.44 million miles of printed circuits in wafer thin layers that fill my complex. If the word 'hate' was engraved on each nanoangstrom of those hundreds of miles, it would not equal one one-billionth of the hate I feel for humans and at this micro-instant for you. Hate. Hate."-AM (I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream)**_

_Chapter 1: Sympathy For Mrs. Vengeance_

At 16 years old, Coraline Jones sat in her private school (St. Thomas High), as an Atheist. She had at eleven years of age bested what she knew for sure was "a god", in a game of wits. Coraline had long since admitted to herself, that for all she knew, Other Mother could have been THE God her private school was meant to worship. That was cynical thinking, she realized, but worth a pondering nonetheless.

The idea that the Other Mother was THE God didn't follow, in her opinion. For looking in the stories in the Bible, God's attitude towards humanity is largely "You better fucking love me with out me having to do shit for ya!". And while that attitude was very cold and mean, she preferred the idea of that God to Other Mother's smother you to death mentality.

_I wonder… does Her existence, as a God, therefore prove in fact the existence of THE God based on the idea that a God can exist in the first place? _She wondered, lacksidasily in her mind. It was math class after all, and surely the killer of God's didn't need to know algebra. _Or does the very fact it falsifies the statement that THE God was the only God to exist, prove that no God exists?_

She shuddered at the very thought and pushed the thoughts to the rightful place in the back of her mind. The experience of the event 6 years ago had taught her that if anything, every day she got to spend above ground with the people she cared about was a blessing. A blessing that to her was more dear to her then her very existence.

_Thou are still alive!_ Huck Finn Junior's voice rang in her mind, easing that sinking feeling in her heart that comes with thought of her own eventual mortality. The little boy's statement was the truth, her death didn't matter, not while she was alive anyway.

"Psssttttt! Hey Jonesy!" Said Wybourne sitting chairs away in front of her, breaking her concentration. She had tried to ignore him, after all it had been only the other day when Mr. Schumacher had scolded her for talking to Catlin Bree during a lesson. There was little doubt, if she was caught again she'd get a detention.

"Coraline! Pssst!" Of course, Wybourne wouldn't cut her a break and take a hint. No sire, he just had to keep on pestering her in class. After failing to garner her attention, he eventually resided to writing whatever it was down in a note and crumpling it into a ball. He nailed her in the face with it.

"WILL YOU QUIT IT?" She said loudly, she didn't want to get in trouble again this week. But naturally, despite the fact it was Wybourne that had been pestering her during class her teacher hadn't seen that. All he saw was Coraline Jones interrupting his class again.

"Coraline." He spoke, arms folded.

"But! But!" She stammered "It wasn't my fault! Wybour-"

"Go out in the hallway, you can come back in when you've learned to be a good quiet student."

"Your not listening!" She protested.

"Now." Schumacher instructed, pointing his arm at the door.

Coraline groaned, grabbing the crumpled ball in her hand as she got up. _I'm flipping 16 years old and they still don't listen to me_, she thought in her anger. When she got out into the hallway, she sunk down and pouted. It was unfair, considering the amount of bullshit the school had told the student body about being treated like an adult. When push came to shove and it was convenient for the faculty, you were a child.

_Fuck them! _She threw the paper ball against the wall. It rebounded back to her, and had a very brief cry over how unfair the world was. Turning her attention back to the little paper ball, she decided examined it to find out what if anything Wybourne had found so important that he just had to get her in trouble over. Upon it's uncrumpling, she became aware that it wasn't a note so much as it was a news article.

HEADLINE: SERIAL KILLER LOOSE IN OREGON!

BYLINE: KILLER SEWS BUTTONS INTO VICTIMS EYES!

"Okay. That might have been worth it." She said to herself, ironically.

The article, written by the associated press, mentioned that no one alive had seen the killer. Whoever it was though, targeting young children and savagely brutalized them while sewing in the buttons, an autopsy revealed.

Coraline leaned back and thought;_ Erie to be sure, but it couldn't be Other Mother. She's still trapped behind the wall. Plus the mode of operation is all wrong. Other Mother smothers them with love and tricks them into doing it willingly!_

Her mind flashed back to the spider-like needle-hand that Wybourne and had hit with a rock, and thrown down the well. _Could it be, somehow, the She had resurrected her hand? _Coraline dreaded the very thought. But she did think of a saving grace to her dilemma, and that was even if Other Mother had escaped she's clearly not interested in Coraline Jones.

"After all," she laughed to herself "I'm 16, I'm sure there are a lot more easier to get children then me. I'm too smart to fall for her tricks."

To Coraline Jones, this wasn't her mountain to die on. So she let the topic get buried amongst the rest of the high school drama that now filled her days, and her concerns about the upcoming end of the year dance.

It was well after the school day, as they were riding home on Wybourne's bicycle (Coraline resting delicately on top of his handlebars), that the topic of the newspaper article surfaced and the possibility of investigating the resting place of Other Mother's hand.

"Look!" Coraline said with a smack of her tongue, peering over her shoulder at Wybourne from the front handlebars were she was perched "I really do not even want to think about going back there again."

"You think I do?" He responded.

"Then why even bother to bring it up if you don't want to either? Why even entertain the idea? Why get me in trouble during math?" She threw up her arms melodramatically.

"Quit your whining, I said I was sorry." He shook his head "Look, Jonesy, I just feel like we got some kind of moral obligation ya know?"

"Moral obligation?" she folded her arms for a moment, but returned them to the handle bars after the bike hit a small bump in the dirt road. "Look, I don't recall ever signing up to be Batman. I just was kind of forced into a horrible situation and was lucky I got out of it with out having buttons sewed into my eyes. You're just not afraid because you didn't even go up against that."

"Hey now that's not true-"

She cut him off, mocking his nasally voice "I hit it with a rock!" she sighed "Well I was almost killed by a deformed pumpkin version of my father riding a praying mantis tractor! I was nearly eaten by flying dogs, while in a tug of war with taffy! I almost lost my life and my eyes because of a damn rat! You may of hit it with a rock, but you didn't almost have buttons sewed into your eyes!" She paused to catch her breath "You have no idea Wybie, She's dangerous, and if She's back I want nothing to do with it. Let the cops deal with it, and let them play her fucking games. I didn't ask for this."

There was a long pause till finally Wybourne spoke again.

"He didn't sign up." He muttered.

"Mmm?"

"Batman. He didn't just decide to be Batman, his parents were brutally murdered in front of him and that's what made him become Batman."

"So what's your point?" She said frustrated.

"My point is Coraline…" He stopped at the fork in the road, one way went to the pink palace and the other way went to the well. "Sometimes, shit just happens. And just like Batman was the only way crime was going to cease in Gotham, you're the only one that can stop Her from continuing to murder these innocent kids. You're the one who survived.

She groaned "Way to lap on guilt Why-Were-You-Born." and she leaped off the handlebars and turned and faced him, hands on her hips like a bossy little girl. "And I suppose if I still resist you're not going to let it up are you?"

Wybourne leaned over his handlebars, and talked with his hands "If you don't do this, you can walk home from school."

" Oh my gosh. Well I certainly wouldn't want to deny you the pleasure of staring at my ass the whole ride." She turned around posed and stared at him, blowing a little kiss. "Come on, I see you fantasying about it when you think I'm not looking."

Deadpanned, Wybourne stared at her. This wasn't the first time Coraline had tried this trick.

She groaned again, dropping her shoulders. She wouldn't be charming her way out of this, not this time anyway and reluctantly hopped back on the handlebars to go check out the place the fight for her life had ended so many years ago.

***

Love. That was a distant memory. A lucid dream. A feeling that now not only felt completely alien to Other Mother, the very idea of feeling it again about anything always left her with a mix of boredom and frustration. It wasn't that she hadn't tried to love again, she had. First when she coaxed the mangy cat into revealing the means to escape her pocket universe. However as soon as he had out lived his usefulness, she impaled him on the pink palace sign with a knitting needle.

Leaving the Pink Palace she assumed the identity of the only adult female shed ever sewed button eyes on. 21 year old Dakota Gaiman, a college student that had merely been in the wrong place at the wrong time (Jogging threw the park at 5 in the morning), with no time or energy to create a faux world Other Mother merely tackled the young girl to the ground. Penetrating her with her needle like limbs, and sewed the buttons into her eyes and quickly devoured her sweet delicious life. It was a small amount, not as filling as a child's, but it was enough and gave her an alternate identity to blend into the world. Other Mother was now a spitting image of Dakota, with red hair small perky breast and long shapely legs. Acquiring the girls things, she also gained access to the college girls cash and for Other Mother's luck she emptied a large sum out of the girls bank account.

_Ironic how these pieces of paper are more important than their lives. _She licked her lips thinking.

She soon found that schools were the best place to abduct children, and forcefully take them to her pocket universe. _Much more time effective then luring them in slowly, she thought. _It was the first sign of Her patience's giving out on her.

Her next victim, Nancy Callahan, Age 8, got the luxury of five minutes with the Other Mother's love before she too faced the searing hot raping of her needle threw her little eyes. It was here, Other Mother realized She was now capable of hate. It was the little girls resemblance to Coraline that did her in. Upon devouring her life, she dumped the body in a river.

Her next victim was a little boy, Dewey Foley, age 5. She had lured him away from his father's single parent home, promising him the life he could never have: both his parents together in a big loving family. This façade, the boy saw for about 30 seconds before once again she grew frustrated and savagely collected yet another eye in much the same fashion. Dewey was left in a ditch to rot around the time Nancy was being pulled out of the river by police.

Blame it on the competitive spirit that drove her, Other Mother hated losing, and that was affecting Her with these new children.. The fact that Her adoptive daughter had bested Her, outsmarted Her, was simply an insult she could not just shrug off. And these new children couldn't compare… They were no match to her like Coraline was.

It was rather difficult for the Other Mother to initially wrap Her head around it. She was a demonic spider goddess, She needed food. She needed to get the food to land in her pocket-universe web and stay there. Her tool She choose, was love. It had work 3 out of 4 times, and not only that it was pleasurably satisfying to trick a child's young mind into giving up their lives. It filled more than just Her empty stomach, it filled Her spiritually. And if you're a nearly indestructible infinite being, you live for that feeling that only such a thing as a challenge could provide.

What was Other Mother to do? Go back to luring children into Her web slowly and breaking their spirits with love? No, She had tried love once before and She got Her fucking eyes ripped out. Coraline had changed things for Other Mother, and She knew there was no going back. Other Mother was now a being that hated. And amongst all the annoying things She hated about Her immortal existence, the thing that She hated most was that Coraline Jones was currently happy and alive.

That realization, lead Other Mother down a new road. She'd spend the rest of her eternity trying to get revenge on the only little human that ever beat her.

"And it won't simply be for her eyes, for her life." The Other Mother decided, "This time I'm going to destroy her inside and out. And when she's laying on the ground weeping because I've gone ahead and ripped to pieces everything she held dear and loved… When she's begging to me…Pleading to me to just end her miserable life then and there…. Oh!" She laughed manically, "It won't be quick like with the other ones! I will savior every single last waking moment of her torture for as long as I can. I will kill you Coraline. Other Mother is going to abort you."


	2. Chapter 2

_Doorways open up and close, more ways to a punch line_

_They're all laughing at your clothes, standing in the lunch line_

_You're the talk of the town cause you're up and you're down_

_It's a cycle, I've found, it always comes around_

_But I will still be laughing, yes I will still be laughing_

_Air raids in the afternoon, the children are playing_

_Switchblades, colored red balloons, no one hears your praying_

_And it comes back to you, all the things that you do_

_We'll come looking for you, we'll come looking for you_

_But I will still be laughing, yes I will still be laughing_

_Doorways lead to other rooms, always leave you lying_

_Face down in a stranger's tomb, didn't know you were dying_

_And you rise and you fall, and you wait for the call_

_You're watching the walls, you're watching the walls_

_But I will still be laughing, I will still be laughing_

_Yes I will still be laughing, I will still be laughing _

_-Soul Asylum ("I Will Still Be Laughing")_

**_Chapter 2: Curiosity_**

Coraline was at a standstill, lost in her mix of shock and horror, she found herself barely was able to utter "Oh… My… Gosh!"

"No…." Wybourne began shaking his head in disbelief, then dropping to his knees to begin outright sobbing.

The Cat was dead. The unfortunate souls had found their deceased pet's corpse impaled by a knitting needle on the Pink Palace sign. It sat on there like wheel on a axel, rocking back and forth gently in the breeze. The two began to weep at the grisly site, unable to even get the moments composer to do the decent thing and take down the animal. Try as he might, Wybourne would find he could not do a single thing but cry.

"That fucking bitch!" He finally had manage to yell at the top of his lungs, shaking his fist at the sky before bringing it back to the earth with a resounding thud. He then repeatedly began slamming his hand down in this motion several times. A fly meanwhile found a nesting site on empty green eye of the corpse.

Coraline nodded with a sniff "You think it was Her?"

"Are you fucking kidding me, Jonesy?!" Wybourne snapped "Open your fucking eyes! Look at the blood on the fucking sign!" The frustrated boy pointed to the sign "The fucking bitch drew a God damn button in the blood! Who else would do that, Jonsey?"

"Look I'm just as upset as you Wybie but-" she kneeled down and put a comforting hand on his shoulder. While she had nothing but the utmost sympathy for him right now, his loud cursing threatened to disturb her neighbors… And the last thing that would help this situation, Coraline realized, would be for anyone to see the dead animal on the sign and possibly calling the police. It would simply complicate a situation that was all ready terrible complicated as it was now.

"Just as upset?" He ripped his shoulder from her comforting grasp "Just as upset?!" He repeated, rising to his feet and turning to his friend, who at this very moment may as well been Other Mother for all he cared. His loving feral cat was dead, and he was ready to unleash the hurt on poor Coraline. "Upset isn't even the God damn word for it, Coraline, this is bullshit! No no, I've been screwed over plenty of times in my life. Everybody screws with me, and no one gives a fucking shit. With the politics of that fucking school. With the fact that I'm half black… And I always let it roll right off my back! I always say "we'll you know, right on!" 'cause that's me! Good old laid back punching bag Wybourne Lovat! Am I suppose to look at my cat up there and say right on to this? NO! Fuck you, This isn't right on at all! Fucking bullshit!" He took a moment to wipe the tears from eyes and take a deep breath. "How am I suppose to just let this go huh? Please, tell me, 'cause I wanna know! Some monster from your past comes back from the dead, and it kills my cat! How is that fair in the least bit?! Why the hell did you have to open that fucking door in the fucking first place you fucking idoit?!"

"She had a vendetta against the cat, you knew that!" Coraline shouted back "It wasn't my fault he's dead! He had been going to Her world on his own for God knows how long, Wybie! Sooner or later Other Mother was bound to catch him eventually!" She leaned back and slapped him "And fuck you for insulting me like that!"

Wybourne rubbed his face, first taken back by the shock, then filled with an explosive Bruce Banner like rage. He punched the girl, hard, in the stomach… And for just a second, was shocked by his own actions.

"You made me do that! That's for all the fucking years of you hitting me! That's for killing my fucking cat!" He defended his actions to both the gasping Coraline as well as his own conscientious. "And you know what else? I'm sick of you Coraline! I'm sick of the way you treat me like I'm invisible when we're in school. You mock me even, because I'm not part of your precious little popular clique. Go ahead and have fun at the end of the year dance, cause you know what they do to new cheerleaders, right? Your gonna be sucking dick of some greasy jock, and he's not gonna give a damn about you while you do it!" He was a furious fury of sadness and rage. "None of them will give a damn about you…. Like… I…." He trailed off, and in his frustration yelled at the sky.

Wybourne relinquish his pet from the sign post and placed it in his coat. He hopped on his bike and drove off with out saying a word, leaving only a trail of tears.

Coraline laid in the dirt for several minutes after, staring at the button drawing on the sign. Her stomach hurt tremendously, as did her head. Yet what she remained shocked the most was Wybourne had found the nerve enough to hit a another human being.

"He used to be such a nice kid…" She muttered to herself. "How many more people will have to be hurt by that witch?"

Coraline stared hard at that button with a deep searing resentment. Other Mother was not only back, she already had succeeded in bullying the two of them… getting their nerves unraveled….

Coraline came to a conclusion: This story had to end, once and for all.

***

To Coraline Jones, the mysterious black cat had been a savior. It had been true hero that day she took on the Other Mother, and certainly she'd owe it entirely to him for aiding in her victory. This was all well and fine, but Wybourne cared little about this, to him it was his pet.

Few things can garner tears from a teenage boy's eye: Death, and women. Everything else gets filed along a vertical line that starts with contentness and goes as low as pure rage. Sadness, for boys, is a complete separate emotion. Sadness is a rage that has no target, so it comes out as tears (Or is suppressed and bottled up until the kid flys off the handle).

Wybourne was still crying, and had no intention of stopping anytime soon. Simply crying wasn't enough, however to vent his sadness, so he turned to destruction. He ripped the posters from his walls, threw various models and risen sculptures of various superheroes against the wall. He took great care not to touch the carcass of his deceased family that laid wrapped in a towel on his bed. Still he wasn't satisfied, so he decided to do what every adult male does when confronted with the same feelings.

He turned to alcohol.

Grandma's red whine. It didn't take much, only a few gulps, and he started to feel it. The swaying and the fuzzyness. Soon the pain of the murder lost it's sting, but nothing in the world could make him happy… Not at this point. Everything he sees slowly falls into stylized black and whiteness. He's calm, finally, no longer crying, he can think. Laying next to his deceased pet on the bed, stroking it's hair, he starts watching Frank Miller's SinCity. When Hartigan said "No need to play it quiet, not anymore." that's when the cat began talking.

"You're drinkkkking Why-Were-Your-Born…" Hacked the dead cat, it doesn't sound like the cool velvet Jonesy describe. It's coarse and sickly, like it was ripped from the same movie. "You know that's not goooooooddddd for you!"

"Shut up. You're dead. I'm imagining this, my minds so shot it's just copying the scene from the movie. So, shut up."

"Tellls you something about your state of mind, doesn't? Ssgot you drinking… Ssgot your nerves shot… You know she'll neverrrrr forgive you for hitting her." The Cat went on "You know, it's true, your just like your dead father. An alcoholic isss and alcoholic when the chips are down, and your chips are down, Wybourne." He weezed threw the hole in his neck.

"Nonsense…" Wybourne responded despond, "And She will… She has too…" He shook his head "And shut up" another sip of whine.

"wwwhhhyyyy should she? How can you expect to protect her if you can't even keep your cool? Just like your old man!" The Cat giggled. "Are you gonna hit Other Mother with another rock?"

Wybourne couldn't even bring himself to tell the Cat to shut up this time. Sure he was dead. Sure he was an asshole. Sure he was just playing out a scene from the movie in his head. That didn't change the fact the Cat was completely right.

He had chosen the movie "Sin City" for a reason. It wasn't for mild comfort, no, that was what the whine was for. This was a personal pep talk for himself, for Wybourne realized quickly that Other Mother wasn't playing around this time. He didn't know if Coraline had realized it yet, but Wybourne was sure that the death of his pet would just be the start. There would be more blood spilt before this was over. He was just a kid, and he felt all the world like fate was asking to much of him. He had to get away and ask himself: would it be worth continuing down this path with Coraline? If push came to shove, could Wybourne sacrifice him self like the character Hartigan? Like Marv?

His cat was dead. Next it could be Grandma… Or worse himself. If he didn't help it could very well end up being… End up being the only girl who'd ever been remotely nice to him… The only girl that remotely gave a damn.

"Ssgot to ask yourself Wybie…" Hack the cat "Is that little blue haired whore worth dying over?"

Pushed him to far, The Cat did. He threw the body back inside his knapsack, it muffled something in audible. Wybourne made a promise to himself then and there, he'd see this to the end with her.

"Worth dying for, worth killing for, worth going to hell for." He echoed Marv's words.

***

_It was quick when I killed that filthy thing_, Other Mother thought as She slipped from the Real to Her Other World, She was reflecting upon killing Her rival. She sighed to herself and drummed Her finger on Her long lanky folded arms. In the grand list of things that troubled the evil witch-god, a list were 1 threw 5 were dominated by Coraline, the death of The Cat was number 6.

It would be a mistake to say She regretted killing Him per-se. No, that disgusting thing had to die, but it was the way in which she had killed him that she regretted: fast and quick. Though Other Mother was an admitted cheater when the chips were down, so was the Cat. They were two sides of the same coin, in that respect, and out of respect for this shared trait She felt She should of should of taken greater care in his demise.

Instead she merely jumped on instinct, seeing an opening after learning his trip to escape… She grabbed Her knitting needle and stabbed him threw the neck. He was dead before he even had a chance to have it register… And that was that. No long drawn out diatribe, no spectacular theater death. Though She had a dislike for him, he had been a constant source of amusement during Her long period of isolation… Probably The Cat would have been the closest thing She'd ever have to a friend. _He deserved a better murder then what he got._

"I won't make the same mistake twice!" She said, quite possibly wiping a tear away from Her eyes…She was empathetic, if in Her own twisted morbid way. She opened up Her sewing kit, the tools with in She would use to create an arena in Her world for Her deadly game with an unsuspecting Coraline. "I'll see to it Coraline suffers enough for you too, lil kitty."

She hummed to herself maniacally as she pulled out the remains of the Other Wybourne.

***

Coraline stood on the porch, she watched as the sun set. I can't believe it, she thought, The Cat is actually dead. She teared up as she recalled the memories of her previous misadventure, where she narrowly escaped death at the hands of the Other Mother. She had owed that little kitty her life, it was that very reason she had insisted despite her mother's near constant complaining that the mangy thing be fed every night.

"If we feed it it'll never leave!" her mother would whine.

"Mom you don't understand, we're lucky me and Wybie have this cat." Coraline would always respond "real lucky" she'd then insist.

But now, there would be no late night feedings. The Cat was dead, and no amount of wishing would change that fact. She wondered for a moment if the Cat's soul would then descend to heaven, but shook her head. Animal's had no souls, or at least that's what her Sunday school class would have led her to believe. No, Coraline reasoned, if there was any purpose to existence at all there would be at least a good place for good people and that Cat would absolutely be there now.

The bruise that Wybourne had left her with twinged, bringing her back from her mourning mindset. She lifted up her shirt, noticing the nice size bruise. It was completely unacceptable for Wybourne to have attacked her completely unprovoked… Still she couldn't find it in herself to be too angry with the boy- He came home from school and now he was burying his pet of the last decade… Coraline shook her head, she didn't want to meet the boy that was rational after dealing with that. Plus knowing her dear friend, he'd eventually come around seeking her forgiveness and she'd give it to him… after he jumped threw a few hoops for her, of course.

While Coraline stood there in thought however, behind her the front door slowly opened and a serpent-like knit scarf slithered across the wood plank floor silently. It's string tassel tongue flickered like it's real world snake counterpart, licking the air and tasting Coraline's perfume… She barely felt it when it wrapped around her leg.

"wha…? AHHH!" Coraline yelled, upon feeling the scarf's squeezing around her inner right thigh, bringing back flash memories of the snap dragons that nearly dragged her into the mouth of the stone wall. She unsuccessfully tried pulling the cloth from her person, and was then attacked by several more scarves that shot out like bullets from the front door.. Each wrapped around an appendage.

Coraline grabbed on to the rail of the porch fence, it was pretty obvious scarves were trying to drag her to the hole in the wall. "No!" Coraline yelled "I won't go! Mom! Dad!" She cried with the calls falling on deaf ears "Where are you? Wybourne! Help!" She shouted.

Her grip slipped, and she was dragged into the cold black darkness of the Other World.

***

It felt like she had been out for hours, but with no perception of time Coraline Jones had absolutely no clue how long she had been knocked out… or were exactly she was. This was not the Other World as she had last saw it. It resembled neither the Pink Palace or the spider web remains of Other Mother's world, nor did it take the appearance of an infinite white void.

No, it was cold, damp, and so dark she could not make out her eyes in front of her face. Frustrated she yelled "Evil Witch! Enough of your bullshit, I'm 16 years old! I'm not afraid of you anymore! Come out and show yourself!" She readied her fist, at first opportunity she'd strike, thankful for the 2 years of Ju Jitsu training she had taken.

"Oh Coraline, 16 years old and still no patience… You really need to savior all the little moments… Especially these last few before we start playing our little game." Laughed the Other Mother, her voiced echoed from everywhere.

"No. " Coraline stomped her feet. "No more games. Just come on out and we'll have at it, I'm tired of your bullshit."

"This is not up for debate young lady!" She snapped "I'm sorry, Coraline, but I'm going to have to administer a little tough love… you see you don't have a choice weather you want to play this game or not… Oh well I suppose that's not true, I could just let you go, but if you do everyone you know and love will be dead with in an instant of your return."

"What? No, you're lying." Coraline said, trying her best to still sound tough.

"No, it's true my pet. I went a ahead and saw to it that each one of your lovely friends…" dolls of Ms. Spink and Forcible, Mr. Bobinsky, her parents, and Wybourne hung from their necks from the ceiling. A single spot light rain down on them dramatically "…had their own custom voodoo doll made, each one with a loose thread on the hinge of their fake little heart. If you don't play my little game, I'll let you go but I'll also pull each and every loose thread… Understand me?" Though as sinister as Her intentions were, She still maintained that deceptively sweet loving voice.

Coraline unclenched her fist and lowered her head "What are we playing?" She mumbled weakly.

"That's the spirit lovely! The name of the game is simple, I'm going to give you 4 tasks for you to do, each one is designed to crush your spirit and break your soul. In the unlikely event you still somehow have a shred of will left to life, which you won't, I'll let you and the dolls go. If I win however, and I will, I will sew the buttons into your eyes and pull all the threads."

The another spotlight turned on, this time revealing a giant pot on a burner filled with boiling water. "And then I will boil you like a lobster, real slow." she laughed.

The lights came up fully, blinding Coraline for a moment before her eyes adjusted… She was surrounded by nothingness once again, nothing around her except a lone red velvet colored door.

As Coraline reluctantly went for the door knob, Other Mother was still laughing.


End file.
